The potential behind the metaverse becomes greater as the virtual and physical worlds converge. Market intelligence firm Contrive Datum Insights recently discovered that the global metaverse market is expected to surpass $1.3 trillion by 2030. According to the study, this growth will be driven by trends in the virtual economy. newly adopted, combined with the rise of crypto and online gaming.
Additionally, a recent survey conducted by CoinWire pointed out that the metaverse is likely to reshape social lifestyles. CoinWire found that 69% of respondents believe the metaverse will eventually change social lifestyles due to new approaches to entertainment and activities.
AI will make the metaverse more interactive
Cathy Hackl, author of Into the Metaverse: The Essential Guide to Business Opportunities in the Web Age3, told Cointelegraph that the metaverse includes virtual shared experiences that occur both in virtual spaces and in the physical world:
“It’s just that the physical world side of the metaverse equation hasn’t been fully activated. This will come in the next 10 years. If you take that into account, the way we socialize will be profoundly impacted by the metaverse.
Hackl explained that technologies such as volumetric video — a technique that provides a more immersive experience by capturing three-dimensional spaces — will likely change the way people communicate. “For example, it can help us feel more present when our loved ones are far away,” she said.
Hackl added that artificial intelligence (AI) will help create more interactive metaverse environments in the future. Although the concept of AI and metaverse is relatively new, there are examples today showing how it can play out.
For example, Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox – a popular decentralized virtual world – told Cointelegraph that over a million users played games in The Sandbox last year. . Borget believes The Sandbox users have become familiar with using avatars to present their digital identities. He said:
“In The Sandbox, users can connect with their digital identity, form friendships and experience real emotions through these experiences. It does not matter the origin, age or origin of the users. The Sandbox is a global digital nation.
With this in mind, Borget is aware that metaverse platforms have the potential to reshape social lifestyles. “Three billion people are now digital natives – there is no going back. The way to interact is now with avatars in social worlds and on social media platforms,” he said. he declares.
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While that may be the case, Borget shared that users of The Sandbox will eventually be able to incorporate their own physical movements into their digital avatars, resulting in more personalized and realistic features. Borget explained that The Sandbox would partner with AI tech startup Kinetix to bring “emotes” — animations that express emotion — to video games and virtual worlds.
Yassine Tahi, CEO of Kinetix, told Cointelegraph that emotes will allow users to animate avatars through personalized dance moves and physical interactions displayed in reality. “We’ve developed a unique AI that allows users to record movements with a phone’s camera, which can then be applied to avatars,” he said.
According to Tahi, emotes are important for recreating social interactions. “In the future, people will want to embody the physical world to behave in certain ways in virtual worlds. For example, if someone falls during a parade in the physical world, this can be recreated in the metaverse with avatars using emotes.
In addition to emotes, using AI to implement voice features can also help deepen interactions in digital worlds. Sabin Dima, CEO of Humans.ai – a layer 1 protocol built on top of Cosmos – told Cointelegraph that AI will play a huge role in the metaverse when creating better user interactions. “Humans.ai is the AI blockchain and is used to create ‘super skills’ and voices that users can apply to avatars in different virtual worlds,” he explained.
According to Dima, creating a digital voice or allowing avatars to speak in different languages will increase social engagement and improve experiences. To put that into perspective, Dima shared that Humans.ai allows users to create digital voices, speak in different languages, and implement synthetic voices that can prevent discrimination.
“You can enter a zoom call with a different voice, for example, which could prevent discrimination if you want to remain completely anonymous. It will definitely reshape social lifestyles,” he said. Additionally, Dima noted that the voices are minted as non-fungible tokens to give users true ownership of their voice clips.
Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, further told Cointelegraph that he believes AI will improve metaverse experiences.
“A primitive example of this is chatbots. In video games, we constantly engage with non-player characters with rudimentary character development. AI changes that significantly. They will deepen and enhance engagement and create deeper meaning and utility for their related ownership of their assets in the metaverse,” he said.
Will metaverse interactions replace physical encounters?
While the Metaverse has already begun to demonstrate how people can engage socially in virtual worlds, integrating AI into these environments will likely create better engagement. Still, it’s debatable whether social interactions in the metaverse will eventually replace physical engagements.
According to Siu, individuals are already influenced by online experiences. Therefore, he thinks the metaverse will likely create deeper immersion in the future. Considering this, Siu noted that the metaverse will not replace actual engagements but rather enhance those interactions.
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Dima added that the metaverse, combined with AI capabilities, will drive a digital transformation that could make people “smarter”. “AI will allow avatars to speak in different languages or be present in multiple spaces at the same time,” he said.
Still, while AI-powered virtual worlds will likely result in more realistic experiences, Hackl pointed out that the physical world remains a key part of the metaverse. She says:
“The future of the metaverse is about connected experiences that transcend the physical and virtual divide. They will be just experiences. The difference is that experiences will be augmented by technology.